LOS ANGELES – As a kid, I always wanted to be a superhero, fly an X-Wing fighter or gun down alien monsters on a distant world. Now, technology is finally catching up to my childhood imagination. And it’s pretty damn cool.

At a glitzy Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference held at the historic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles this week, Sony took the wraps off the company’s slate of upcoming PlayStation 4 video games, including a new Spider-Man adventure (created by veteran development studio Insomniac Games), a new God of War sequel (featuring a grizzled, bearded Kratos in a Norse-inspired winter realm) and a surreal new title called Death Stranding, directed by gaming legend Hideo Kojima and starring a lifelike virtual version of The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus.

But some of the biggest head-turners – literally – are coming from Sony’s entry into burgeoning realm of virtual reality. The upcoming PlayStation VR headset, due in stores Oct. 13 for $549, is Sony’s big bet on this exploding phenomenon.

PlayStation VR will work with the existing PlayStation 4 as well as the upcoming, more powerful version of the game console, codenamed PlayStation Neo, which Sony plans to unveil later this year. The spacey-looking VR headset is surprisingly light, and slick adjustment buttons and knobs make it simple to get a snug but comfortable fit.

From Star Wars to Batman to Final Fantasy, Sony is aggressively bringing VR to some of gaming’s biggest properties, with Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Shawn Layden promising there will be 50 PlayStation VR titles available by the end of this year.

During a hands-on demo session at E3 this week, I dove into Batman: Arkham VR, developed by Batman: Arkham series creators Rocksteady and due out in October. The demo began with me as Bruce Wayne, gazing around a 3D recreation of Wayne Manor and chatting with my noble butler Alfred, then using keys on a piano to activate a secret elevator that took me down to the Batcave. Once there, I donned Batman’s costume, cowl and rugged gauntlets – motion-sensing PlayStation Move peripherals are used to control Batman’s hands – and experimented with a grappling hook gun, an evidence scanner and batarangs, which I snatched off my utility belt and hurled with gleeful abandon.

It’s a heady experience – the game is split into a “Become the Batman” introductory demo and a story-driven murder mystery of sorts – and shows how well VR games can work when designed around both the strengths and the limitations of the technology.

After that I took up arms in Farpoint, a first-person sci-fi shooter designed for PlayStation VR. Using a brand-new VR gun controller with a built-in thumbstick to guide my character’s walking movement, I explored a hostile alien world, blasting dozens of nimble spider-like critters and using a grenade launcher on their bigger, scarier cousins. Holding a physical gun accessory in my hands made the experience incredibly immersive, and being able to freely use my head to look around gave the world an amazing sense of presence. (While inching along a cliff ledge, I leaned over to look way, way down and ended up slipping off and falling to my doom. Whoops.)

Sony announced that the popular online action game Star Wars: Battlefront will get a VR-exclusive X-Wing mission, while the upcoming Final Fantasy XV will have VR-specific content as well. Resident Evil 7, which Sony unveiled at E3, will be fully compatible with PlayStation VR - although playing a creepy horror game in virtual reality might be too much for some folks. I prefer my pants uncrapped, thanks.

Sony isn’t focusing exclusively or even primarily on VR, as the company has announced an impressive array of traditional titles for PS4: the cavepeople vs. robots action game Horizon: Zero Dawn, the story-driven sci-fi thriller Detroit: Become Human, the graphically gorgeous zombie apocalypse game Days Gone and The Last Guardian, a seven-years-in-the-making adventure that finally has a release date: Oct. 25 of this year. Hallelujah!

But while it’s not exactly cheap, PlayStation VR will likely be a lot of gamers’ first step into this new realm of entertainment, as the barrier to entry is much lower than that of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR devices, which require powerful gaming PCs to run. (I’ve spent a lot of time with the Rift and the Vive, and I was surprised how little difference there is in the visual fidelity between PlayStation VR and its competitors.)

Where virtual reality goes from here is anybody’s guess. Did I mention I also wanted to be a fireman? And an astronaut? And a cowboy? It’s only a matter of time.